Christians live together by respecting the authorities God has placed over them, extending grace to each other in the gray areas of life and faith, and loving people personally, not just professionally. In the final chapters of Romans, Paul shows that being part of the community of faith doesn’t exempt us from responsibilities in the world. It actually raises the bar for how we treat everyone around us.
This lesson covers Romans 13–16. Read those chapters during the week, and highlight the verses that stand out to you.
Respect Governing Authorities
Being part of God’s people doesn’t mean we’re exempt from earthly governments. Paul is clear about this.
Romans 13:1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
All authority comes from God, even if you didn’t vote for the people who hold it. Paul wrote this while Rome was ruled by Nero, hardly a godly leader. That means our respect for authority doesn’t depend on whether we like those in charge. It depends on our trust in the God who is over them.
That doesn’t mean blind obedience. When the authorities commanded the apostles to stop preaching about Jesus, they refused.
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!”
So Christians obey the law, pay taxes, and pray for leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2), unless doing so would require disobeying God.
Show Grace in the Gray Areas
Survival in the community of faith requires grace in the gray areas of life. In Paul’s day, the hot controversy was whether Christians could eat food that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul told them not to fight about it.
Romans 14:1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.
“Disputable matters” are issues the Bible doesn’t clearly settle. Today, those might include alcohol, music styles, schooling choices, or politics. On these issues, sincere Christians can disagree. What matters most is how we treat each other.
Romans 14:19-20 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
It’s hard to extend grace to someone who doesn’t share our opinions. But Paul says unity matters more than winning the argument. (For more, see the legalism topic.)
Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Love People Personally
Paul’s heart for the Romans was intensely personal, not merely professional. We see this in the last chapter, when he starts naming individuals he knew from the Roman church.
Romans 16:3-4 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
Paul had met this couple years earlier in Corinth.
Acts 18:2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
They became coworkers, friends, and partners in ministry. Romans 16 lists more than two dozen names. That tells us Paul didn’t just teach theology. He loved people. Why did Paul write Romans? To explain the gospel clearly, to unite Jewish and Gentile believers, and to prepare for his visit to Rome on the way to Spain (Romans 15:23-24). He wanted the church to know the good news and live it out together.
The Takeaway
Christians live together by respecting the authorities God allows, giving grace on disputable matters, and loving people by name. The good news of Romans isn’t just something to believe. It’s something to live out in community.
